Following the previous news on the Sentinel-1B anomaly that occurred on 23 December 2021, very detailed investigations related to the satellite power system’s affected unit have continued over the past weeks.
One potential failure scenario could be linked to a leakage of a ceramic capacitor which is part of the main and redundant regulators of the 28V power regulated bus (the bus that supplies power to the SAR electronics subsystem). Such scenario has been qualified by experts as possible. No conclusions have been drawn yet on the clear identification of the anomaly.
In parallel to the investigations, satellite system level analyses have been conducted, with the aim to perform new recovery attempts of the power unit. Using various commanding strategies, several attempts consisting in switching ON the prime and redundant regulators have been executed, some of them requiring substantial work and the preparation of new operational procedures.
In one of the many attempts to switch ON the prime regulator, the status of the regulator remained ON for 4.4 seconds and was then reverted autonomously to OFF, as observed through the related telemetry. This was the first time this change of status was observed since the start of the recovery attempts in early January 2022. This behaviour could indicate that the prime regulator features a degradation, but not necessarily a permanent failure.
Further tests will be performed over the next days and weeks, with the objective to understand the observed behaviour and potentially identify new recovery actions of the 28V regulated power bus. Some of the attempts will be executed by turning ON or OFF heaters hence varying the power supply temperature, this could influence the behaviour of the regulators.
The conclusions of the Anomaly Review Board are expected towards end of May 2022.
The satellite remains under control, the thermal control system works properly, regular orbit control manoeuvres are routinely performed.
Sentinel-1 users should still assume a long-term unavailability of data provision (several months). It is however too early to consider a permanent unavailability of Sentinel-1B.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
A maintenance activity on the Sentinel Users Bulletin Board website is foreseen on 20 April 2022, from 09:00 to 11:30 CET. During this time interval, the website may be unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause to your activities.
Copernicus Sentinel-1A was unavailable between 20:52 UTC on 13 April 2022 and 08:34 UTC on 14 April 2022, due to a SAR anomaly. No data were generated during this period.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
A maintenance activity on the Sentinel Users Bulletin Board website is foreseen on 14 April 2022, from 13:00 to 15:00 CET. During this time interval, the website may be unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause to your activities.
Due to Copernicus Sentinel-3A In-Plane orbit correction manoeuvre SLSTR products degradation is expected for sensing time from 13/04/2022T07:51:39 to 13/04/2022T08:01:43.
Due to Copernicus Sentinel-3B Lunar Calibration operation, instruments products degradation is expected for sensing time from 17/04/2022T05:11:19 to 17/04/2022T06:01:49.
Due to Copernicus Sentinel-3A orbit Instrument Calibration, SRAL products degradation is expected for sensing time from 13/04/2022T08:22:00 to 13/04/2022T08:24:00 and from 14/04/2022T18:16:37 to 14/04/2022T18:17:01.
Following the renewal of the ESA S3 Processing Services, the former Land Processing Centre codes "LN1", "LN2" and "LN3" will no longer be used. Instead two new Centre Codes "PS1" and "PS2" will be used to identify the new Processing Services. Nominally "PS1" corresponds to the service performing the systematic processing of "S3-A" data and "PS2" to the service performing the systematic processing of "S3-B" data.
For example:
instead of:
Furthermore, the following information will be updated accordingly:
processing centre information present in the product manifest
Sentinel-3 file naming convention as:
Product Generating Centre
Consists of 3 characters, either uppercase letters or digits
Generating Centres for the Instrument data products:
LN1 = Land OLCI Processing and Archiving Centre, closed in 2022
LN2 = Land SLSTR and SYN Processing and Archiving Centre, closed in 2022
LN3 = Land Surface Topography Mission Processing and Archiving Centre, closed in 2022
PS1 = Land Processing Service 1 (nominal service for S3A)
PS2 = Land Processing Service 2 (nominal service for S3B)
MAR = Marine Processing and Archiving Centre
SVL = Svalbard Satellite Core Ground Station, closed in 2018
LRn = Land Re-processing Centre number n
MRn = Marine Re-processing Centre number n
Generating Centres for the Auxiliary data file:
The list is not exhaustive
ECW = ECMWF
EUM = EUMETSAT
SVL = Svalbard Satellite Core Ground Station
MPC = ESA’s Mission Performance Coordinating Centre
POD = Offline POD Service
CNE = CNES SALP service
MSL = Mullard Space Science Laboratory
If not applicable:
3 underscores “_”
The switch to the new processing services will take place on 5th April 2022.
Due to Copernicus Sentinel-3B Out-of-Plane orbit correction manoeuvre, instruments products degradation is expected for sensing time from 06/04/2022T08:21:27 to 06/04/2022T08:54:46
A maintenance activity on data hub services is scheduled for April 6, 2022 from 07:30 to 16:30 UTC.
During this time, a publishing delay for Sentinel-1A may occasionally occur on the following hubs:
Copernicus Open Access Hub (also including API Hub)
We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause to your activities.
Calling on all interested users of Sentinel data, who would like to submit their results, turning their experiences into 'success stories'.
If you have a good story to tell, of how any of the Sentinel satellites are producing data that bring benefit to your work and/or to society, please contact the Sentinel Online Editors at: contentmatters4sentinelonline@ejr-quartz.com with your proposals.
